Mad About Multiples!

Travel With Multiples? Well, Yes and No...

Our contributors had lots to share this week about their experiences in the world of travel with multiples:

• After a first taste of travel with her twins, Amy T. and crew decided to keep their visits closer to home but look forward to future longer trips when her kids get older;
• Lisa G. and her husband instituted a moratorium on travelling with twins until futher notice (e.g., when twins are older);
• MommyTwinGirls got used to very long trips with her twins from infancy and believes that's the key to travelling with her now 4-year-old girls;
• Just when Linsey K. and her husband returned to their travelling ways with their twins, they had another one. Twins plus one - now what?! A little break and a bit more planning and they're venturing out once again;
• Akemi pondered the pros and cons of bringing a stroller on her boys' first visit to Disneyland anticipating weary, sleepy boys at the end of an exciting, exhausting day and;
• Polly F. was bound and determined to keep travelling, even with the arrival of her twin boys.

It's a daunting prospect but we've all tried it...and survived to tell our tales. We've all learned a lot about what we would do next time. Fortunately, in the meantime, our twins will be a little older and a little easier to tow along on our adventures.

Original Mad About Multiples blog post.

I Love To Travel

It's that simple. I found out I was pregnant shortly after my husband qualified for his company's President's Club trip. I was bound and determined that we'd be going. The boys would be 10 weeks old. Sure enough, we made the trip and it was awesome! We joked that we thought we went on lots of vacations. Nine days in Maui, add a nanny and our two new additions and that was our first vacation for two sleep-deprived parents! We haven't stopped either.

My family lives on the east coast. So, not traveling to see familiy and friends is out of the question. I always feel like I can do anything once I return from a trip. I will take the boys anywhere because my confidence level is so high. In 2 1/2 short years the boys have been on 20 airplane rides, all but two were more than five hours and they have done great. They think vacation = plane so much that when we were getting ready for our trip to Tahoe (we are on vacation now), Ben was practicing getting on the plane. I explained that it was a roadtrip.

Navigating Disneyland: On Foot or by Stroller?

It was the night before my twin boys' first trip to Disneyland and I was in the final stages of packing up the car. Amazingly, our mini-van was still looking roomy inside. Now that our twins are heading towards their 4th birthday (this fall), we no longer have to haul so much gear along with us. No more diapers, no more Pack n Plays, no more strollers. Woo hoo! Goodbye, mini-van; hello, Prius!

But a tiny voice inside my head put the brake on that idea, whispering, "Bring the stroller."

Bring the stroller? Really?

Ok, I must confess that I still occasionally put my kids in a stroller. It doesn't happen often, but I like to think of my stroller as a sort of safety net. Basically, it's there in the event my kids grow very, VERY tired. My thoughts drifted to the worst case scenario of two tired and cranky boys refusing to walk and hurling themselves to the pavement in a full on tantrum. Did we really want to carry two sleepy and/or uncooperative 40 pounders in 90 plus degree heat while wearing backpacks and carrying a souvenir or two?

Traveling with Twins + One: Finally Taking Adventures

I remember when I first found out I was pregnant with twins. We had recently gotten back from biking around France, visiting my twin sister in  St. John's, Newfoundland, running a marathon in Victoria, BC. We were adventurers. But I was duanted. I asked my husband: "How will I go to the grocery stores?" I couldn't imagine going anywhere, much less traveling. Then they were born - premies, plus my daughter had refux and cried for the first 7 months of her life. I simply got used to being at home. Really, at home. It was just so much easier. A wedding in Portland when the kids were about 6 months old? No can do. Vacation? Nope. Eventually, we became forced to travel to visit family. To L.A., where my in-laws live, for the babies' first Christmas, proved fairly successful actually. We found there were benefits to traveling - for instance, my son, 11 months old at the time (9 months adjusted) had just figured out how to sit up in bed, but couldn't lay back down (remember that?!) - anyway, sleeping in a pack-n-play instead of a crib helped him because the sides were soft. So we just let him cry a bit and figure it out. Who know how long that process would have taken if we had been home?

Soon after this and slowly, we started having some fun...

Travelling With Twins? Start ‘Em Young, I Say!

Travel. With twins. An overwhelming thought if you sit down to think about it…especially at an early age. Think of all that gear you have to bring with you now in your car. Now imagine lugging all that stuff onto an airplane. It’s downright exhausting just thinking about it. But you know what? It’s not that bad. And it’s not all that different. We’ve been travelling long distances with our twin girls since they were 2 ½ months old. Their first trip was to San Diego. Yes, we drove (gas wasn’t as much of a hindrance 4 years ago as it is now). Caveat – our kids *loved* sleeping in the car…in fact, they still do (luckily)…a big, big advantage…and a major requirement for a relatively peaceful drive for 9 to 10 hours from the Bay Area…oh yea, and toys. We realized that the immobile phase was great for travelling. We did it again a few months later…and a few months later after that.

Our big trip was to the homeland (Norway) to visit my husband’s side of the family. It would be the girls’ first introduction to their aunts, uncles and cousins (grandparents visited on their first birthday). The girls were 17 months old. And toddling. Everywhere. Sitting down was not an option…unless it was on the floor where they could examine seat legs, airplane magazines and their toes. Ugh! I don’t have to tell you how dirty the airplane carpets were are. We walked around the plane once with them wearing socks…the bottoms of those socks turned an ugly gray after a single lap. I finally placed an airplane blanket on the floor for them to sit on and play. I didn’t want to think too hard about the carpet…I just needed a little peace.

Have Twins, Won’t Travel

When our fearless blog leader told us that the topic of the week would be travelling with twins, I practically experienced the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.  Based on my experience, the best advice I have on travelling with twins is DON’T!  Okay, here’s another don’t:  Don’t take me too literally.  Everyone’s kids are different and this is only the story of one hapless mom of twins plus one.

When the boys were about five months old, I decided to drive them from San Jose to Orange County to visit friends and family.  My husband and I had done this same journey with our singleton when she was about the same age, which had been relatively easy.  She slept most of the time in the car and was happy in new surroundings.  Not so with the twins.  I won’t go into all the gory details but let’s just say that what should have been a 6-hour journey ended up taking 10 hours and that 8 of those 10 hours were fraught with hysterical crying (mostly on the twins’ part).  Dane was miserable because he couldn’t sleep in an upright position.  Being the compliant brother, Logan figured he’d go on crying duty as soon as Dane took a break. Logan just sort of picked up the slack where Dane left off.  God forbid we have a moment of peace.  Part of the reason the trip took so long is that we had to keep stopping to try and soothe the twins. 

It's Travelling With Multiples Topic Week!

Summer is upon us and the biggest subject of worry for many of us families of multiples? Travelling with our kids! How do you do it? Can you do it without losing your sanity?

There was a previous post on Travelling With Twins - a recap of the New & Expectant Parents meeting where a panel of members offered advice from their own travel experiences with multiples. All panelists had made several long trips with their twins at different ages and had plenty to say.

This week, all contributors have stories to share about taking their multiples on trips - short or long. So, check in everyday this week for a new multiples travelling tale.

Safe travels!

Traveling with Multiples? What's That?!

For a stay-at-home-mom, I sure don’t stay at home very often. Since my twins were only a few months old, I would take them out for walks every day. I couldn’t wait to join a playgroup. When the kids were 5 months old I was meeting other moms for coffee, strolls through the mall, parks and play dates at other peoples’ homes. Now that the kids are 2 years old, we are usually out the door after breakfast and don’t come home until 1 p.m. for naps. I think I’ve been to every gated park in the area and we have been busy checking out different library story times. We’ve done My Gym and a Together Time Class through a parent-participation preschool. On the weekends we often go to Children's Discovery Museum, Happy Hollow, Oakland Zoo, San Francisco Zoo and anything else that sounds fun and interesting for our toddlers. But the thought of taking a trip that involves a plane ride or even a long car ride – yikes! 

I love the idea of taking a trip with the kids. In fact, we have attempted a trip or two. We drove to the San Diego area when the kids had just turned one. Our plan was to leave at 6 p.m. hoping they would sleep the entire 7 hour drive and they did! However, when we arrived at the hotel at 1 a.m., they were wide awake and not very happy. My husband set up the pack n plays and after about an hour of crying on and off, we finally put them in bed with us, trying not to wake up all the other hotel guests. None of us slept well that night, therefore it was a very LONG next day where we had plans to visit friends, go out to lunch and maybe play on the beach. The kids were still taking two naps and trying to get them to nap in the pack n plays at someone else’s house was just proving to be more work than what it was worth. Quick naps in the car and another night of them in bed with us and I was ready to go home. The kids were tired and cranky and so were we. I was stressed and could not enjoy our visit.

Slipping Around in Flip Flops

By the time I was 6 months pregnant with my twins, the only shoes my poor, bloated feet could comfortably squeeze into were flip flops. I wore flip flops day in and day out throughout the hot summer months and into the chill of autumn. When I looked out the window and saw rain, I pulled out my rain coat...and my flip flops. Only in a balmy climate like California could I pull off such fashion schizophrenia.

As my pregnancy progressed, I found it harder and harder to move about with any speed. I shuffled along at a slow pace, my feet stuffed into flip flops. When I was about 7 months along, I made the requisite pilgrimage to the holy land of baby gear, Babies R Us, hoping to stock up on some newborn essentials. As I set about browsing through the bountiful aisles, nature called (of course) and so I detoured toward the store restrooms to deposit my teaspoon of pee.

My eyes scanned the store for the restroom signs. Bingo! I headed over, my bladder nearly bursting. I pushed open the first and then second sets of doors and headed toward a stall. I was almost at my destination when suddenly, the ground gave way beneath me and I fell with a hard, bone shattering thud.

Boxes

I have found that having twins of the same gender elicits pre-conceptions among strangers. There are two types of reactions:  1)  Are they identical?  2)  Are their personalities really different? Would it be that life was so black and white. Number one, they are not identical and to my eye, they don’t even look that much alike. I’ve remedied this by only cutting one of the twin’s hair. Believe it or not, I think the hair is what was making people think that they were identical. Now I’m getting, “Wow, they don’t look much alike.” 

Yes, the twin experience is different than being a singleton but the way this affects their personalities is up for debate. They did share a womb and are almost always together so this does affect how they perceive and interact with the world (nurture).  But, biologically, they are the same as any two brothers (nature). When they are young, it is difficult to keep their identities separate and distinct and most of us probably fall into the trap of lumping them together with terms such as “the boys” or “the twins” or in my case, “the monsters” … I say this in the most loving manner possible (wink, wink).